Wulf Yularen was one of the most loyal and respected Officers in the Republic Navy, serving
side by side with the most renowned Generals, including Ankain Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi…
So why did he betray the Jedi and join the Imperial Security bureau after the fall of
the Republic?
Well the answer is much more complicated than you might think…
So hit that subscribe button and lets break down the reasons Why Wulf Yularen Betrayed
the Jedi and Joined the Empire…
==NUMBER 1.
Loyalty and Relationship with Palpatine==
So to get a picture of who Yularen was as a man, and as a military officer, we have
to back to his days as a young man, and how he grew to become incredibly close with Chancellor
Palpatine.
Yularen grew up as a very wealthy and well connected young boy on the planet Coruscant,
born to a prolific Navy instructor who lived and breathed military tradition.
His son continued this passion, eventually atttending the Naval academy on the planet
Presfbelt IV, leaving him with two main options for his career.
Since the Republic was demilitarised at this time, before the Phantom Menace he could join
the Republic Judicial Forces, which were sort of like Galactic peacekeepers and inspectors
when the Jedi couldn’t show up, or he could join a planetary defence force.
Being the huge military man that he was, Yularen chose to join a planetary defence force, seeing
it has having a far greater military tradition than the toned down and frankly, pretty weak
judicial forces.
He saw the Judifical forces as pretty much being a fake military that didn’t really
get much done.
As a result he joined the prestigious Kwymar Sector forces in the OUter Rim, taking the
position of Captain.
Yularen absolutely loved the sense of pride and military tradition that he was experiencing
in this role, fighting everything from slavers, to pirates and black market smugglers…
His time with the Kwymar Fleet left him utterly obsessed with uncovering corruption and ensuring
that security and leaks were stopped at all costs.
If you’re familiar with where Wulf Yularen ended up in Rebels, you’ll know this hatred
of leakers stuck with him.
This love of hunting corruption eventually led him to a role in the Senate Bureau of
Investigations, investing and uncovering corruption among Senators…
As you can imagine, this left him hated among most Senators, but Palpatine took a liking
to him.
Supreme Chancellor Palpatine quickly appointed him to an anti-corruption unit under his office,
and as a result of this, the two came to admire eachother greatly.
They both formed similar views of how the Galaxy should be ordered and soon Yularen
found himself in Palpatine’s inner circle…
Overall, the two simply couldn’t agree more on how the Galaxy should operate.
It was also during this time that Yularen first encountered the renowned Separatist
Admiral, Trench at the battle of Malastare narrows, believing that he died there…
Obviously this
was later proven very scarily wrong.
This wouldn’t last long however, as shortly before the Clone Wars kicked off, the Senate
defunded Palpatine’s anti-corruption unit, believing he was overreaching the powers of
his office, leaving Wulf Yularen bitter, angry and into an early retirement.
At this point, Yularen was frustrated and lived his live on the remote world of Anaxes,
wondering what to do with his life now that his only purpose had been taken away…
Luckily for him, the Clone Wars kicked off not that long after, and Palpatine immediately
offered him a role within in the new Grand Army of the Republic Naval forces, giving
him the rank of Admiral.
This made him the youngest Admiral to ever serve in the forces, once again strengthening
the flourishing relationship between Wulf Yularaen and Palpatine…
Loyalthy that Yularen would be sure to pay back…
==Number 2.== **This leads us onto number two.
Wulf Yularen really believed in the cause of the Republic, and the Empire was only the
natural continuation of this cause…**
This funnily enough even extended to the Jedi General he was assigned to serve with, Anakin
Skywalker.
If you remember from scenes in Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith and from the
Citadel with Tarkin, it’s clear that Anakin shares a pretty similar view of how the Galaxy
should run with Yularen, contributing to them getting along famously during the war.
This reinforcement continued all the way throughout the war, solidified Yularen’s belief that
the Separatists were not simply people who wanted to be treated fairly within the Republic,
but instead extermists who wanted to throw the Galaxy into Chaos.
And this view was actually very widespread by the end of the War.
Most citizens of the Galaxy actually welcomed the formation of the Empire because it put
an end to the endless bloodshed and warfare of the Clone Wars, who most blamed the separatists
for.
This was a big part of why the Empire punished former Separatist worlds so much more harshly
than the rest.
**That then leads us to point number 3.** Yularen 100% believed Palaptine’s story
that the Jedi had attempted to perform a coup and take power over the Galaxy…
Because of his extremely good relationship with Palpatine, his love of the Republic and
his strict view on anti-corruption, Yularen fully believed that the Jedi were traitors
to the Republic and completely flipped from being peacekeepers to attempting to take power
from Palpatine.
When Palpatine marked the Jedi traitors, Yularen had no reason not to believe him.
The two shared the same vision for the Galaxy, the same hatred for corruption and he barely
knew what the Jedi did before the war began.
Being so disgusted with the Jedi’s attempted coup, Yularen vowed to never let anything
like that ever slip past him again, resigning his post in the navy, and immediately moving
to the Imperial security bureau.
Here he would be able to fulfil his desire to root out corruption in the brand new Empire,
and ensure that nobody could plot to take down Palpatine again like the Jedi had done.
One of Yularen’s first major assignments in his new role at the ISB was to investigate
every single Senator who signed the Petition of 2000, which was a document signed by 2000
senators, demanding that Palpatine give up his emergency powers…
This was seen in the deleted scenes of Revenge of the Sith, and many prominent Senators like
Padme Amidala and Bail Organa signed the petition before the Empire was formed…
Yularen was tasked with investigating and intimidating everyone who signed it…
In fact many were executed as a result of these investigations.
In a way, he probably saw this as payback for all those years ago when the Senate dismantled
his anti-corruption team, who was investigating them.
Either way, Yularen quickly rose to the rank of Colonel within the ISB, and was in charge
of the Empire’s most important and critical intelligence operations.
As part of this he even served alongside infamous figures such as Grand Admiral Thrawn, Agent
Kallus and Grand Moff Tarkin…
And this leads us to the final reason, ********************************************************************************************************************************************************Wulf Yularen didn’t really view his actions as
a betrayal of the Jedi at all, in fact it was likely the other way around.********************************************************************************************************************************************************
As said earlier, the Empire was simply the continuation of the Republic, so him remaining
a key figure in the Galactic government is no surprise, and he certainly didn’t see
it as him betraying his former allies from the Jedi Order.
By this point, he likely viewed the Jedi as disgusting traitors who tried to overthrow
Palpatine and take control for themselves.
He knew nothing of their mystical ways and only ever saw them as monks who probably shouldn’t
be involved in the tactical planning of a Galactic scale war.
Although he did deeply respect his own Jedi General, Ankain Skywalker for his courage
on the battle field and willingness to lead from the front.
They also agreed on much about the state of the Galaxy and how it should be run, which
leaves us with the major question…
Did Wulf Yularen know that Anakin Skywalker was actually under the Darth Vader suit in
the meeting room from a new hope.
We know in the current Canon that Tarkin certainly did, but did Yularen also?
Well in Canon, we only have confirmation that Tarkin knew, and the matter of Yularen knowing
has not been touched.
But considering his propensity and interest in intelligence, as a member of the ISB, I’d
say it’s pretty likely he put the pieces together.
Having served alongside Anakin for so long, he would have seen some of the same battlefield
tactics in Darth Vader…
And this is actually one of the reasons that made Tarkin realize Vader was Anakin, he saw
Vader using many of the same battlefield tactics as the former Jedi General…
And with all that said, we finally get to the most tragic point in the story.
Colonel Wullf Yularen was sadly on board the First Death Star when Luke Skywalker blew
the battlestation up, killing everyone on board.
As you’ll know if you’ve read the lost stars book, many Imperials who were not aboard
the Death Star when it was destroyed viewed this event as the worst attack in their history,
and on par with the destruction of Alderaan.
This emboldened many Imperials, just as the destruction of Alderaan did for Rebels…
Ultimately, we don’t know what Wullf Yularen was doing in his final moments, but he certainly
lived a fulfilling and respectable life, showing that not all imperials are pure evil.
Some truly believe in the cause.
So that is why Wulff Yularen betrayed the Jedi and joined the Empire.
Thanks so much for watching, remember to leave a like and subscribe and I will see you in
the next one.